Many home centers and other retailers of window covering products purchase venetian blinds in stock sizes from a blind manufacturer and display those blinds in retail store locations. These retailers have machines, called cut-down machines, which a salesperson or technician can use to trim a stock blind to fit a window, door or other opening having dimensions smaller than the dimensions of a stock blind. Typically, the customer provides these dimensions. For example, a customer may tell a salesperson that the dimensions of the window to be covered by the blind are 34 inches wide and 48 inches tall. The stock blind closest to those dimensions is 36 inches wide and 48 inches in length. Consequently, it will be necessary to cut two inches from the width of the stock blind to create a blind that will fit the customer's window. Because the customer usually wants each of the two ladders in a venetian blind of this size to be the same distance from the edge of the blind nearest the ladder, the retailer will cut away an equal amount of material from each edge of the blind rather than cut all the material from one edge of the blind. In the example, one inch would be cut from each edge of the blind. If the blind is too long for the opening, extra slats or other window covering material can be removed from the bottom of the blind. A cut-down machine is not used for this purpose.
There are several types of blind trimming machines known in the art. One type of blind trimming or cut-down machine has a set of cutting dies that act as the cutting mechanism for trimming a venetian type blind. The operator of these machines must insert the headrail into one die cavity, insert the bottom rail into another die cavity and insert the slats into a third die cavity. Examples of this type of machine can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,799,557 and 5,927,172 to Wang, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,806,394 and 6,196,099 to Marocco and U.S. Pat. No. 6,761,099 to Lin et al. In each of these machines the die cavities are in fixed locations relative to one another. Typically, an operator of the machine will remove the blind to be cut from its container and place the blind on a table adjacent the cutting dies. Then the operator will maneuver the headrail, slats and bottom rail until they are positioned within the appropriate die cavities. The machine may have an alignment guide to assist the operator in positioning the blind. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,172 Wang discloses an end stop having three recesses, which is positioned opposite the cutting die. The operator positions the headrail, slats and bottom rail within the appropriate recesses prior to cutting.
An operator can spend several minutes removing a venetian blind from its box and positioning the blind on the cut-down machine so that the headrail, slats and bottom rail are aligned with the appropriate die cavities. Consequently, the art has proposed boxes with removable end caps that can be used for venetian blinds such that the blind can be trimmed without fully removing the blind from the box. One example of such a container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,073 to Tu. Since the headrail and bottom rail of the venetian blind are free to move relative to one another when partially within a container such as that described by Tu, an operator of a cut-down machine must still adjust the relative positions of the headrail, slats and bottom rail to align them with there respective die cavities in the cut-down machine. Consequently, there is a need for a collar that can be placed around a venetian blind to maintain the headrail, slats and bottom rail in relative positions that correspond to the die cavities in the cut-down machine. Such a collar may also restrain the blind from lateral movement within the box during shipping and handling. If such a collar were provided, then an operator of a cut-down machine could rapidly remove one end of a venetian blind from its container and easily insert the headrail, slats and bottom rail into their respective die cavities without handling each one individually.